WIZARDRY

[derboo]

We sure did take our sweet time with this, but the actual article is finally happening. For now mostly limited to the original North American series, though more of the Japanese entries will follow in the next couple years. If anyone feels up to the task of covering a Japanese sub-series, feel free to contact me.

[Nester the Lark]

From the first page:

Commenters often place emphasis on Oubliette (1977) as the definite influence, although shares of credit most likely also need to go to Moria (1978?) and avatar (1979), the latter of which first introduced the menu-based town (in Oubliette and Moria the cities are mazes almost as convoluted as the dungeon itself). But Greenberg and Woodhead weren't content with copying existing games. The PLATO dungeons are much larger than the Wizardry scenario, but feel empty and generic. The Wizardry creators felt that something was lacking. As Woodhead explains in Game Over! The Illustrated History of Video Games: "We added a concept and story line to what we'd seen on PLATO, where it was 'hack-hack-kill-kill-occasionally something interesting happens-run away...'"

That should be "High Score! The Illustrated History of Video Games." I think you got it mixed up with David Sheff's book.

[derboo]

Oops! Damn all those books and their stupid generic gaming term titles...

[Garamoth]

Very interesting read.

I have to say the Japanese art design is very inspired. I can't think of Wizardry without it anymore.

EDIT: can all the Japanese remakes of 1-3 be fully played in English? You guys already talked about it, but which anthology do you guys think is the best?

[kaoru]

Might want to add that, for some strange reason, the japanese console ports* completely change the layouts for floor 6-8, and only those, in the first Wizardry. They are still absolutely optional, with no important item to be found and leading to a dead end, making the choice even more strange.

*at least in the SNES-version they are, I just presume that started in the NES-version and was handed down to other systems, like most changes in them.

[derboo]

Sept 15, 2014 21:10:08 GMT -5 Garamoth said:

EDIT: can all the Japanese remakes of 1-3 be fully played in English? You guys already talked about it, but which anthology do you guys think is the best?

SNES is the most coherent looking and best balanced. They can be switched completely to English, except for the main system menu where you choose the game, manage saved characters, etc. (and I think there's even a translation patch for that).

Sept 15, 2014 21:11:18 GMT -5 kaoru said:

Might want to add that, for some strange reason, the japanese console ports* completely change the layouts for floor 6-8, and only those, in the first Wizardry. They are still absolutely optional, with no important item to be found and leading to a dead end, making the choice even more strange.

*at least in the SNES-version they are, I just presume that started in the NES-version and was handed down to other systems, like most changes in them.

Oh, right, it started on the NES. Gotta put in a mention of that.

[felipepepe]

Really nice text, thanks for it.

As a curiosity, will it delve into Greenberg vs Sir-Tech lawsuit? It's a cesspit, but it's key to understanding stuff like why none of the Jap titles were released in the west, why it took so long to make Wiz8, the purpose of Sir-Tech Canada, and all that...

[Magma MK-II]

Sept 16, 2014 1:56:15 GMT -5 derboo said:

Sept 15, 2014 21:10:08 GMT -5 Garamoth said:

EDIT: can all the Japanese remakes of 1-3 be fully played in English? You guys already talked about it, but which anthology do you guys think is the best?

SNES is the most coherent looking and best balanced. They can be switched completely to English, except for the main system menu where you choose the game, manage saved characters, etc. (and I think there's even a translation patch for that).

www.romhacking.net/translations/496/

[starscream]

Another great article even in it's not fully realized state.

Regarding the Commodore ports - they belong to a small group of games that make use of the C128 extra RAM and also support a RAM expander (1764).

[elektrolurch]

Wow. great stuff...
Some thoughts.. i've read how the japanese wizardry titles came to be after the death of Sir-Tech.
But.....why did the series in generel struck more of a nerve in japan than domestic.....? Any explonations?
And.......can it be argued that because of wizardry, many jrpg conventions from this early wrpgs series? never thought about it that way, but after reading the article, this argument makes so mich sense to me..

[TheChosen]

This is great. I've never played Wizardry games, but now I'm really in mood for some. Return to Werdna sounds most interesting.

[felipepepe]

Sept 16, 2014 13:42:02 GMT -5 elektrolurch said:

Wow. great stuff...
Some thoughts.. i've read how the japanese wizardry titles came to be after the death of Sir-Tech.
But.....why did the series in generel struck more of a nerve in japan than domestic.....? Any explonations?
And.......can it be argued that because of wizardry, many jrpg conventions from this early wrpgs series? never thought about it that way, but after reading the article, this argument makes so mich sense to me..

At the RPG Codex we made the same question to Toshio Sato, a japanese developer who worked at StarcCraft Inc. localizing RPGs.

Here's his answer:

RPG Codex: To this day, it seems that the Western RPG series that was and remains the most influential when it comes to Japanese RPGs is Wizardry. Why do you think Wizardry is the only WRPG that has had such enormous and enduring popularity in Japan?

Toshio Sato: Although Wizardry's charm appealed mostly to people a little older than me, if I had to answer I would say there are at least those four points:

-The fact that it was the first CRPG brand.

-In order to sell more, Japanese game magazine corporations had extensive media coverage of Wizardry done on TV, in books, etc.

-Japanese people liked the traditional Japanese elements like the samurais, katanas, ninjas, shuriken, etc.

-It was an addictive game you could replay many times over.​

Wizardry was published by ASCII in Japan, and they had a MASSIVE media power. They flooded the market with Wizardry toys, magazines, mangas, fan-clubs, magazine ads and even an OVA... almost like the Pokémon frenzy. Next to that, games like Phantasie and Might & Magic had little chance - they sold reasonably well, but didn't stick to the memory of players so much.

Also, Sir-Tech was unable to produce more Wizardry titles, so they sold the license to Japan, turning it into a "local" thing.

[TheChosen]

There were toys? Any good pictures of those?

[Garamoth]

What's the deal with Sir-Tech Canada? Were any of the Wizardry games made in Canada?

Jagged Alliance 2 is the only game from Sir-Tech that felt obviously Canadian to me (C7 is the best gun, one merc is from Quebec... with very authentic voice acting).

[llj]

Always found it odd that Animeigo never released the Wizardry OVA, considering Woodhead was the head honcho at Animeigo as well.